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“WHAT? BUT THAT MAKES zero sense!” I exclaim. “If she wants to get back together with Jamie, why is she acting like she hates him?”
“Well, for one, he's trying to rob her,” Alyx reminds me. “Also, that's what girls do. We like to make guys suffer a little bit before we finally give in to them.”
“We do?”
“Sure. That's what I used to do.”
When I turn my attention to Jamie and Shella, they're still wrestling with the dowry box. Behind me, Taishi is having a discussion with Wilma Dawes, Alyx's instructor. Honestly, it's kind of funny to see a handsome Japanese cowboy chatting with an old lady in high-waisted mom jeans. Esteban—who's probably tired of the bickering—disappears behind a huge Saguaro cactus. I think he might be relieving himself.
“I can't believe I lost my virginity to you, Jamie Weston!” Shella hisses at her former beau. “Talk about a huge mistake!”
“You'll be alright... as long as your fiance never finds out. He hates me, you know.”
“Stop calling him my fiance! We'll be married soon! You should get used to calling him my husband.”
“Are you sure he'll still want to marry you if you lose this?” Shella's dowry is currently in Jamie's hands, and he's holding it high above her head.
“I don't want to knee you in the groin again, but I will if I have to!” Shella threatens him. “I'll knee you as hard as I can!”
“Aww, you wouldn't do that!” With a wink, Jamie adds, “You wouldn't want to hurt your old friend... would you?”
When Taishi comes over to Alyx and me, my roommate won't stop grinning at him. “Riley-chan,” he addresses me, “Wilma's agreed to take Richard Home. Would that be alright with your friend?”
I don't know why he's not talking to Alyx; after all, she's standing right next to me. Her grin is probably scaring him. She looks like she wants to eat him alive.
“That's fine,” Alyx answers. “Wilma can go. I'll just hang out with you guys.”
A moment later, Wilma and Richard disappear. Esteban is still behind the cactus, which makes me think he might be having an inconveniently timed number two. Jamie and Shella are still arguing. No surprise there.
All of a sudden, the bickering stops. Jamie and Shella are silenced by the sound of gunfire. Four armed riders race down the same hill where Jamie and Esteban were hiding earlier. When they stop near Shella's stagecoach, Taishi groans.
“Are you the girl with the big, fat dowry?” asks one of the riders. As he speaks, he wags his gun—as if he wasn't threatening enough already!
Shella tries to respond calmly, but her face is blanching. “I... don't know what you're talking about.”
Another cowboy croaks, “Like hell you don't! What's your man holding in his hands?”
When I check on Esteban, I catch him peeking around the cactus. He's not even trying to help. He's just hiding.
“Oh, this?” Jamie tucks the dowry box under his arm. “This is nothing.”
“Hand it over!” demands a mustachioed outlaw. He has the densest, darkest, most unkempt mustache I've ever seen. When Jamie doesn't budge, the man raises his pistol and aims at Shella. “Hand it over, or I blow the girl's head off.”
The threat makes Jamie more compliant. His eyes narrow as he surrenders the box. “You just made me your enemy, sir,” Jamie confidently declares. “That wasn't smart. Most of my enemies are taking a long nap in the ground.”
“I ain't afraid of you, boy!” the mustached outlaw mumbles and spits. When he opens the box and finds a stack of cash, he looks satisfied. Before he backs away, he says to Shella, “Good luck with your wedding, ma'am.”
“Taishi,” I whisper to my instructor. “What do we do now? If we let him get away with the money, we fail the mission... right?”
Alyx interrupts before Taishi can reply. “Yeah. But I still have a chance to succeed. In fact, my odds look better than ever. This drama will bring Shella and Jamie closer together, don't you think?”
Ignoring Alyx's comment, Taishi says, “It's not over yet. Leigh, I need you to put a tracker on one of the outlaws.”
“A tracker? What? How?”
“I'd do it myself, but you need to learn.” Taishi loads an app on his LightTab and pushes it into my hands. “Go over to the man with the mustache, aim the LightTab at his face, and wait until you hear a beep. When you hear it, push the red button on the center of the screen. If it's a success, we'll be able to track his movements. Oh... and do it quickly, because they're about to ride off.”
“This is a lot of pressure!” I whine. “Can you do it, Taishi?”
“Do it,” my instructor urges me. “You'll never learn if you don't do it yourself. If you fail, we have other options.”
Sighing heavily, I try to follow Taishi's instructions. As I aim the LightTab at the mustached cowboy, a short profile appears on my screen.
George Oras, 56, lawbreaker. Primary guide: Choum Song.
Choum Song, whoever you are, I feel sorry for you. I wouldn't want to be stuck with a charge like George Oras.
As soon as I hear the beep, I push the button. A map appears on Taishi's LightTab, and George Oras' location is revealed by a tiny red dot.
“Let's take the horses too!” George suddenly decides. “They look like fine stock. I think they'll fetch a decent price.”
“You can't take my horses!” Shella cries. “No, please!”
The outlaws don't care about Shella's plea. They unhitch the horses and ride away with extra sets of hooves. When George leaves, the red dot zooms across the LightTab's screen.
As soon as the threat disappears, Esteban steps out of his hiding place. “Lo siento, amigo,” he apologizes in Spanish. “I didn't want to get shot.”
“Nah, I understand,” Jamie says. “There were four of them and two of us. They were—”
Shella is a little less forgiving. She suddenly interrupts, “This is awful! And I can't believe they took the horses! What are we supposed to do now?”
“Hike through the desert, I guess,” suggests a shrugging Jamie.
“Are you serious? We're at least eight miles from Shockton!” Shella cries.
“I know. It's going to be a long walk, sweetheart.” For a man who lost his loot, Jamie looks surprisingly relaxed. He shoves his hands in his pockets, shrugs, and starts walking.
“I'm not your sweetheart, Jamie! Didn't I tell you that already?” Shella rails as she follows him. Esteban trails behind them. He's so short, I'll be amazed if he can keep up.
Well, this sucks. This is definitely not how I imagined this day would go. Judging from the scowl on Taishi's face, he's even more frustrated than I am.
“This is all your fault!” Shella declares, kicking a pebble. “If not for you, I would probably be in Shockton by now!”
“Are you sure about that? Those guys knew about your dowry. Obviously,” Jamie points out. “If I didn't come, they would've robbed you anyway... and then you'd be hiking back to Shockton on your own. You wouldn't have had me and Esteban for company. Hell, you might've died in the desert. You should be glad I'm here.”
Shella sneers at Jamie's grinning lips. “So... what? Do you expect me to say I'm grateful?” Shella's arms cross as she charges forward. “That's not going to happen.”
For awhile, everyone walks in silence. I imagine it's a blessing to Taishi. As I recall, he thinks words are unnecessary.
After thirty minutes of trudging through the desert, Esteban complains, “My feet hurt. Can we sit for a moment?”
Jamie's reply is unsympathetic. “Suck it up, Esteban. Your feet can't be that bad. We've got a lot more walking to do. If you're already tired, you're in trouble.”
“Pleeeease?” his companion begs. “I just need three minutes, Jamie. Only three. Por favor?”
When he glances over his shoulder and sees his friend's sweaty face, Jamie capsizes with a sigh. “Alright... we can wait for three. But after that, we've got to get moving again.”
“Gracias!” Esteban immediately sits down and rips off his boot. As he massages a callus on his heel, he adds, “ I really appreciate it.”
Jamie sits in the shade of a cactus, while Shella keeps her distance from him. When I see her scowling at him, I resist the temptation to roll my eyes. “Why are you acting like that, Shella?” I whisper to myself. “We already know you like him. You can't hide anything from us.”
In the middle of the desert, three minutes feels like an eternity. Alyx must be feeling the same way, because she suddenly asks, “Is there some way we can speed up time? This is as boring as hell. It's—”
Her comment is cut short by a sharp gasp from Jamie. He leaps from the ground and hobbles away from his cactus.
“What is it?” When Shella rushes toward him, her hatred for Jamie is momentarily forgotten. “Are you hurt?”
“Yeah. It was a snake.” Jamie rolls up the leg of his breeches, revealing two red dots where the fangs penetrated his skin. “It looked like a cottonmouth too.”
“A... cottonmouth?” Shella repeats. “Is that poisonous?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately. Aw, shit...” As Jamie sits back down, he drags a hand through his hair. “I guess this is what I get, huh? This is what I deserve. I tried to take your money, and now I'm gonna die.”
“Nooo!” Shella squeals. She glances back at Esteban, hoping for a solution, but Jamie's friend simply shrugs. “Don't say that!”
“I can already feel it in me,” Jamie croaks. “The snake's poison. It burns.”
I turn my attention to Taishi. He usually has a solution for everything, so I'm not that worried—yet. “What are we going to do?” I ask. “Can he really die from this?”
“If it was a cottonmouth, I believe so. But... perhaps he misidentified it?”
This is bad. If Jamie dies, Alyx and I both fail our missions. I really wanted her to succeed this time. And, of course, I wanted to succeed.
When Jamie starts convulsing, Shella panics. Tears rush into her eyes as she captures Jamie's face between her hands.
“You better not die, Jamie Weston!” she threatens him. “If you die on me, I swear to God, I'll hate you forever!”
Convulsions aren't a good sign, so I turn to Taishi and hiss, “Do something!”
“I can try to remove the poison,” Taishi says as he crouches near our charge. “That would be a miracle healing, though. I-I... I've never actually performed one of those!”
Taishi's face is twisted with panic. That's another bad sign. Taishi is usually calm and collected. He's usually a man with answers. If he looks worried, that's bad.
“Just try!” I beg. “Do something, okay?”
By the time Taishi puts his hand on Jamie's leg, our charge goes limp. I don't think he's dead, but it's not looking good.
“I can't!” Taishi screams. “It's beyond my skill level, Leigh. I-I... I'm sorry.”
Taishi looks so frightened, I feel a sudden urge to hug him. He's afraid of failing. He's afraid of letting me down.
“It's okay,” I whisper. “I mean... we tried our best, right? It doesn't matter if I fail one mission. It's no big deal.”
Did we try our best? Or is there something we haven't tried? In my mind, I replay Taishi's words.
It's beyond my skill level.
It's beyond his skill level, but that doesn't mean it's beyond everyone's skill level. I close my eyes and think of Jophiel. I'm so desperate to save Jamie, I make it all the way back to Home on my own.
When I appear in Jophiel's office, he's hunched over a desk, scrawling strange characters on a paper. His hair is mussed, his shirt is half-unbuttoned, and he's wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.
“Jophiel!”
His body jolts when he hears his name. He immediately takes off his glasses and shoves them in a drawer. “Leigh? How did you get here?”
“I warped... I think?”
“Directly into my chambers?” Jophiel cheekily raises an eyebrow. “That's very impressive of you.”
“Jophiel!” I run to his desk and grab his hand. I don't know if I should be grabbing an Archangel like this, but he seems to like me, so maybe I get a pass? “My charge is about to die. He was bitten by a snake, and I need you to save him!”
“I'm... not really supposed to intervene,” Jophiel says. “Angels aren't supposed to interfere with a student's mission.”
“Is it against the rules?”
“Strictly speaking... no.” Jophiel's answer gives me hope—until he adds, “but it's certainly frowned on.”
“Please!” I cry. If I have to, I'll get down on my knees and beg. “Please help! I thought you liked me!”
“I do. I most certainly do,” Jophiel assures me. “But, I ...”
When a tear slips down my cheek, I smack it away, and Jophiel's expression softens. I didn't realize I was so passionate about this spirit guide stuff. I don't like failing, I guess. Taishi and I are similar in that regard.
“Alright, Leigh,” Jophiel capsizes. “Take me to your charge. I'll heal him.”
“You will?”
“I will,” the Archangel nods. “I just hope we're not too late.”
For some reason, I've mastered the art of warping. The fear of failure must have motivated me. In less than a minute, I'm back in the desert, and Jophiel is standing beside me. As he rolls up his sleeves, the Archangel gently pushes Taishi away from Jamie's leg.
Apparently, there's a huge difference between a skilled instructor like Taishi and an Archangel like Jophiel. As soon as he touches Jamie's leg, white light emanates from his hand, and Jamie's convulsions stop.
“There.” Jophiel rises and returns to my side. “It's done.”
When I turn to Taishi, I expect him to look as relieved as I feel—but he doesn't. He's scowling.
“What's wrong?” I whisper to my instructor. Meanwhile, Shella is cradling Jamie's head against her chest. Her true feelings were revealed by the threat of death.
“Nothing,” Taishi croaks.
“Nothing?” I give him a nudge. “Why are you scowling if nothing is wrong? Jamie's saved! You should be happy.”
“I am happy,” Taishi says, even though his sour expression contradicts that claim. “I just...”
When his voice trails off, I urge him to complete his thought. “You what?”
Taishi's jaw is twitching like crazy. I don't think I've seen him look so annoyed. “I wish...” he pauses a moment, and when he finally finishes, I'm surprised by his answer. “I wish you hadn't reminded me... I'm not as good as Jophiel.”